When and How Often do you visit Befriended Elderly Person (if decided)

Once we have received your details and those your responsible adult we will email you a Letter of Introduction featuring both your contact details for you to show all elderly people whom you approach about visiting. Print off two copies of the Letter of Introduction and give one copy to the elderly person who agrees to accept your visits.

Before approaching any elderly people you should read our advice on the Who Can Enter page by clicking here.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

YOPEY Be A Friend is open to young people aged from 16 to 25 throughout UK. You should nominate yourself and ask an adult you know to be your Responsible Adult .

There is no prize money but a young person who makes contact with an elderly person, to whom they are not related, and then continues to visit them for a minimum of three months will be eligible for the award of a YOPEY Be A Friend certificate.

We recognise you or the elderly person may have to cancel some visits, so for a certificate to be awarded we wish to see a minimum of 10 visits recorded. You will be able to do this on your Letter of Introduction.

YOPEY seeks to achieve a fairer image for young people through the medium of publicity. Therefore nominees must be willing to cooperate with publicity as this is how we improve the image of young people! Ideally the elderly person you visit should also be willing to cooperate with publicity – for example by giving a quote to a local newspaper on what they think of your visits – but this is not essential.

All nominees for YOPEY Be A Friend are asked to provide a photograph of themselves. If the elderly person you befriend is happy to appear in a photograph with you, please supply this.

Please advise the elderly person that the photograph may be used on our website and in stories we provide to the media. Only include them in your photograph if they understand these are possibilities.

YOPEY will support you as much as we can during this process but we cannot be held liable if anything goes wrong. YOPEY believes young people are responsible and we assume you will be responsible in the way you choose the elderly person to befriend and the ways in which you both conduct that relationship.

Any problems should be reported to your Repsonsible Adult first. Only if they cannot resolve them should you contact YOPEY on 0845 838 2640 or hello@yopey.org.

Criminal Records Bureau checks – YOPEY will not be paying for Enhanced CRB checks, as usually used in youth work, to be carried out on people register with this scheme. Enhanced CRB checks are required for adults who have jobs or volunteer roles that involve regular caring for, training , supervising or being solely in charge of children or vulnerable adults. Our view of the Be A Friend scheme is that no-one – neither the young person who volunteers to be a Befriender, nor the lonely elderly person they befriend nor their Responsible Adult – has that role. However if you wish to carry out such checks we can put you in contact with an authorised body which will do this for you for a fee that must be at your own expense.

YOPEY staff and adults who we use in regular roles will continue to have Enhanced CRB checks.